Virginia cruises into Sweet 16 carrying ACC banner

RALEIGH – The last bastion of hope for the Atlantic Coast Conference became Virginia on Sunday night. The Cavaliers didn’t let the conference down.

Virginia turned what started as a close game into a 78-60 rout of Memphis in the third round of the NCAA tournament at PNC Arena. The ACC’s regular-season and tournament champion advances to a Sweet 16 matchup against fourth-seeded Michigan State on Friday night in New York.

“I didn’t know that Carolina lost until somebody just told me, like right now,” Virginia forward and High Point native Anthony Gill said after the victory. “I wish there were more ACC teams in there just to help the conference, but if we have to do it, then we’ll do it.”

At 13 points, Gill was one of five players for Virginia (30-6) in double figures. Joe Harris led the way with 16, Mike Tobey had 11 and Malcolm Brogdon and Justin Anderson added 10 points each.

Virginia flipped a switch and ended the first half on a 16-2 run in the last six minutes. Highlights of that stretch included 3s by Harris and London Perrantes and a put-back score with five seconds left to send the Cavaliers to halftime leading 35-20. The Cavaliers looked nothing like the team that flirted with becoming the first No. 1 seed to lose in its first game of the tournament – Virginia trailed Coastal Carolina by five at halftime Friday night – in dispatching the Tigers (23-10).

“I think we got back to playing our style of basketball, playing for one another,” Anderson said. “It works. The Seattle Seahawks, they prided themselves on L.O.B., Legion of Boom. That’s the defensive end … defense wins championships. So when we’re being successful the way we’ve been this season and we know we lay our hearts out on defense, it makes you continue to believe.”

Virginia’s first-half momentum continued into the second half, when it built the lead to as much as 27. To capture just how far out of hand the game became, the 6-foot-11 Tobey drilled a 3 from the top of the key with 3:42 left. It was his first 3-pointer of the season. That was the last of many signs that the Cavaliers were New York-bound, which was celebrated by a majority Virginia-flavored crowd that serenaded its team with chants of “A-C-C” in the closing minutes.